The Dallas construction worker has spent almost two months looking for an affordable house in the area.

“There’s not a lot out there in the budget we have,” said Quesada, who now rents an apartment for his family. “We’ve been told that it’s the best time to buy a home because the interest rates are at an all-time low.

“The hard part is finding one,” said Quesada, who’s looked at properties in south Oak Cliff and Grand Prairie and has zeroed in on a three-bedroom home in Duncanville.

“It’s a lot of hassle, but, at the end of the day, it should be worth it,” he said.

The North Texas housing market is enjoying a surge in property sales and rising prices.

But in the Quesadas’ price range — less than $80,000 — there are very few homes to purchase in Dallas-area neighborhoods.

The Dallas Morning News, in a yearlong analysis of data, identified the 10 highest-scoring North Texas residential districts that have some of the lowest median prices.

But real estate agents say most of those neighborhoods — including northwest Grand Prairie, Pleasant Grove and West Dallas — have many fewer houses available to purchase than in the past.

“People hear the news that sales are up and prices are up, but not for everybody,” said Dr. Timothy Bray, director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“If you are a family and you have been renting and are ready to buy a house, there aren’t many affordable places in the city to go. The housing stock is gone.”

Real estate agents and market analysts say that a flurry of purchases by investors and overall increases in home prices have sharply reduced the options for homebuyers looking for good working-class homes in many Dallas neighborhoods.

At the end of April, there were only about 2,700 pre-owned homes listed for sale at less than $80,000 in all of North Texas. That was a little over 10 percent of the pre-owned housing inventory.

And while overall home sales in the area are up more than 20 percent so far in 2013, purchases of homes priced under $80,000 are 9 percent below where they were a year ago, data from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems shows.

At the same time, sales of houses priced over $250,000 are more than 40 percent higher this year than in 2012.

Praying for listings

Bray said many Dallas residents who would prefer to stay in familiar neighborhoods are being forced into the suburbs to get a house they can afford.

“You have to go to places like Mesquite, Garland or Grand Prairie to buy a home,” Bray said.

Overall home listings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are in the shortest supply in almost two decades. And real estate agents who work in some of Dallas’ most affordable neighborhoods say it’s even tighter there.

“We are praying every night for listings,” said Al Herron, who for more than 30 years has headed Dallas’ Century 21 Galloway-Herron Realtors. “In the past, the lower end of the spectrum would have more houses available.

“But it has dwindled to the point that almost anything that comes on the market gets multiple offers.”

Real estate agents say tougher mortgage lending standards that make it hard to buy a new home have kept some low-priced properties from selling.

And a frenzy of purchases by investors — particularly in Dallas’ lower-cost neighborhoods — has blocked some sales to owner occupants.

“The investors are out in droves, and they are buying up anything and everything they can,” said Jim Fite, president of Dallas’ Century 21 Judge Fite Realtors. “There are some of these investors making 30 and 40 offers on properties at high prices — all cash.”

These buyers who plan to operate the houses as rental properties can also move faster than many owner occupants who must wait for loans to be approved and appraisals to be done.

“Assuming you can get your financing, you are bidding against investors who are paying cash, and some of them are not requiring inspections or option periods,” Fite said. “If you are not preapproved for a mortgage, a cash buyer will always beat you out.”

Fite said many first-time buyers are reluctant to make a quick deal.

“When you see a property you want to buy, you need to make a decision right now,” he said. “If you sleep on it, odds are they’ll have multiple offers.”

Fewer foreclosures

Fewer foreclosed properties are hitting the market in Dallas, which has reduced the availability of bargain houses. Foreclosure filings in Dallas County are down almost 40 percent this year from 2012.

The government-affiliated entities that sell foreclosed houses — the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — all have programs that are designed to give owner occupants first crack at buying foreclosed homes.

“The first 15 days we have a property on the market, we only negotiate on owner occupant offers, without them having to feel like they are having to compete with investors,” said Eric Will, a senior sales director with Freddie Mac’s HomeSteps foreclosure sales division. “Investors are very active right now and paying above list price.

“In this market especially, owner occupant buyers have to be very well-prepared so when homes hit the market they can get their offer in quickly.”

Will said about 2 out of 3 homes Freddie Mac sells nationwide go to owner occupants.

But he said the government-sponsored mortgage company doesn’t have a lot of inventory for buyers of any kind.

“Most of our inventory is in the affordable range, but in this area we don’t have a lot of inventory,” he said.

North Texas has long had some of the nation’s most attractive big-city home prices. But the spread between the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the rest of the country is narrowing.

In the first quarter, the median price of homes sold nationwide was $170,000, compared with about $164,000 in North Texas, data from real estate agents’ sales shows.

“The whole tide of prices is rising,” said Dr. James Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “In the future, we won’t see that many under-$80,000 properties.

“And people who live in that price house are often not anxious to sell because they can’t afford a move to anything else.”

The tight market hasn’t discouraged potential buyers.

“They want to buy a house and attend our classes for home-buying education,” said Albert Martin IV, president of the North Texas Housing Coalition. “The problem remains that oftentimes in the areas they want to live in, there is really no housing stock available.

“Dallas needs to own up to the fact that it has an affordable-housing crisis.”

Follow Steve Brown on Twitter at @SteveBrownDMN.

AT A GLANCE: Best values

In addition to the 10 neighborhoods with the highest quality index and low prices, The Dallas Morning News calculated those that were best for the money: areas with highest quality index per dollar of median home value.

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